[Hamish Boyd]

I think you can still be a positive contribution to a forum without being identified. I’m still not convinced otherwise, but I guess I’m a minority opinion on this, and I accept that.

Without laboring the point, I feel that having a little anonymity on the net is a healthy thing and I have been in situations that being identified through the Cow would have become problematic in a professional sense (can I stress, not for any wrong doing or unprofessional behavior on my part, or for the most part anyone else).

Part of the concern is because of the sheer size of the community in the cow. I would have totally agreed to some identity when the cow was a small one horse town with some tumbleweed blowing down the main street. But this is now like a huge world city. It is so universal throughout the video community worldwide that the person next to you in the other edit/graphic work station is quite possibly logging on to the same discussion. For the most part thats fine. Just not all the time. Particularly as once something is on the net, it never leaves.

I feel this could be the case particularly with people just starting out and learning the ropes and having your name up there could be intimidating and therefore would be reluctant to contribute.

Anyway… these are just my ramblings.
Thanks for the discussion.

[Hamish Boyd]

Ok , I’ll use up my last Mr Invisible post to post here because I think its important to debate and have this discussion open for everyone…

I certainly don’t pretend my credits would come close the list of people you have mentioned. I’m not in their league at all. But I still have concerns about standing nude in the spotlight of online forums, so to speak… Its not about me putting tickets on myself.

This website has been critical for my professional development. I have loved everything you guys have done and the time and patience of all the people who have answered my often silly questions, but my reservations extend to all online forums. It is not about me thinking too highly of myself at all, far from it. Its more a question of personal space and a little privacy online.
I certainly respect those who happily put their names to their posts, but I don’t believe that should now be thrust upon everyone. It should be up to the individual to choose.

Every online forum has to deal with the issue of Trolls and all those who want to undermine the collective good of forums and I can certainly see where your coming from, but it seems a little presumptuous to assume that all of us agree to that.

Of course this is your forum to do with what you will, but please understand the reservations that some may have and that those reasons are not about wanting to undermine what you do, or thinking too highly of ourselves, it is simply not wanting to identify ourselves for our own reasons what ever they may be. And that should be respected.

Obviously this is now set in stone, but I thought it important to make the point in any case.

Over to you….

[Hamish Boyd]

yikes..
Question.
Does this affect all previous posts that you have made?

I understand your reasoning but I do like my invisible cloak on the net. this is not so I can go around insulting people, its just a little personal distance from people I don’t know from a bar of soap.

There is also the fact that SO many in the industry refer to this sight that it leaves open the very possibility that people you work with or could potentially work with know more about you than you care for.

In short.. I can’t ask embarrassing questions about some tech stuff I should know but are a little unsure of when I know that someone could identify me in a professional sense. Thats not being sneeky or deceitful, thats just sensible, particularly as a freelancer. I don’t want to be judged by what I say here, no matter how benign all my posts are, I’d rather be judged by the results I give to clients.

So if this is the way it goes now.. guess I’ll quietly back out now and watch from the sidelines.

[Hamish Boyd]

crumbs…

I’ve just been “Zelin’ed”. 🙂

I appreciate your response.. I really do. But but but… sir….
I can explain….

Yes I agree that I should have scopes.. but I don’t. Maybe next year. Work is on the up and I should have some monitoring.

BUT I have supplied over 50 tvcs. All passed. All ok.
(And actually the tvc we are talking about here has not been rejected by the stations, so I think someone was not reading things right or something at Adstream… so I still have a perfect record. I need to clarify with them EXACTLY why they thought this one tvc was out when I get the chance.)

My asking was also to fill in a whole in my knowledge so I come with cap in hand…

Am I right when Gamut is not something that is measured with the old vectorscope etc.. but is read by something all together different?

How can one control Gamut in an edit environment when delivering via QT files? if it is not something to do with luminance or chroma?

Again apologies for the ignorance.. just need to be directed onto the right path.
Thank you.

[Hamish Boyd]

I can relate so well to all this…

I have been a freelance editor/motion graphic designer gaining more and more clients myself over the years and therefore worked from home more and more.

It was great, for all the reasons people have stated above, but there was a point I could no longer do it. Kids were the major reason. Having a toddler climbing under the desk with a billion plugs was NOT good. But it also became clastrophobic. Never away from work never really tuned into it either.

So I have moved out a got myself a room above a pub (Bar). (I’m in Australia by the way)
Its brilliant. super cheap (its just a single room), its enough for a simple edit system.

I have no interest in becoming a facility. That would be death. I am earning more than I ever have. Clients love it because they feel they have a space without the obvious expense.

They also have a pub with a great Thai restaurant out in the beer garden. So for them, they love it! I have gained a few more good paying clients who can see through the plush office expense of other places, and want a person who is a good editor/graphics above all else. They know what you can do with so little now, there not easily fooled by huge machine rooms.

I don’t want to become bigger than this. Small and efficient is definitely better in this new video world we inhabit. My income is very healthy, and I would have to expand considerably to see that improve and in this climate that is just too much risk with little reward.

I leave other places to bare the huge cost of being a facility and heaps of employees and sell myself on experience and quality rather than gear.

In short, keep it small and nimble and many days of happy editing await, I reckon!

[Hamish Boyd]

yeah got the same problem.

I can play HDV 1080i off the timeline and downcovert to SD but p2 DVCproHD I can’t make work. I was hoping updates might work when my internet comes back, but your running later versions than me.

Thats a real pain then. Can’t see why DVCpro Hd is such a problem to downconvert.

[Hamish Boyd]

Great post Walter!
You know its funny, I was looking at your photo blog the other day seeing all the new toys and what I like following your story with your business is that we have been able to watch it grow here at the cow from humble beginnings and watch how these things can happen for anyone with the passion to make it happen.

I also like how your business has been shaped around the realities of modern tv production, that is, if you know what your doing, if you know what to look for, you can produce top notch broadcast quality TV on very little equipment. (compared to yester-year that is) and grow slowly and carefully and not exposing yourself to huge amounts of expensive redundant equipment (a big hello to those paying off their AVIDS hehe)

And finally seeing where you are now with a wizz bang set up with everything talking to each other.

Its been a very inspirational story so far Walter, especially for someone like me making my baby steps into building a production company similar to yours down here in Australia.

[Hamish Boyd]

Thats exactly what I do have. Using superduper, I have a OS clone on a firewire. So that is always the option.

I guess my concern is that often some key problem doesn’t reveal itself immediately. And a buried in a big job you come up against a wall, and then realise its update issues. Going backwards with project files is not always pretty.

[Hamish Boyd]

Walter is spot on, you scale up as needed. its always a bad idea to over capitalise.

I would say I’m where Walter was about 6years ago.
It started out by me doing graphical after effects TVCs from my imac. in between my freelance editing gigs. No broadcast monitor, just After effects and a g5 imac in my living room.

Pretty dodgy, but I have had the experience to know a few tricks to make it all broadcast safe. No commercials were ever rejected.
But it certainly wasn’t ideal. That said, the client was well aware of it all so it wasn’t a problem.
but things get busier, you need to accommodate for more varied jobs and slowly, very slowly you accumulate gear as required so you can do the best job for the budget and the requirements of the client.

Now I am just in the process of moving out of home and setting up my little edit suite with the gear I have accumulated. Not much more than you have now, but its all about being smart, knowing what is achievable, working within your limits (but always pushing them) and things grow.

Bottom line, treat your clients like gold dust and things will happen.

But you don’t have to go out and buy all that gear now if your business doesn’t require it.
Any extra gear I have bought has been paid by a gig that has come through the door. (simplistic accounting I know, and not quite reality but a good yardstick to go by)

[Hamish Boyd]

Maybe its the act of going and writing up your problem that your brain thinks of new solutions to the problem.

I seem to have a habit of coming up against a brick wall trying to figure every which way a solution. Going no where, posting a problem here…

Then the light bulb goes off. 🙂

Anyway,

It was to do with a second camera being nulled to a layer that was flipped. It didn’t reveal itself until further down the timeline due to the kind of camera moves I was doing. Only until I started doing something different it looked as if it was going haywire. Which is was in a sense.

So back to re-animating eeeesh.